Brain Enema of a Savage Mind

Some things about beer.

People have asked me before why I don’t write more about beer; especially reviews of beers or breweries. The subject is actually a bit of a dilema for me since I work for Ithaca Beer. I’d hate for comments I make to come off as attacks on other breweries if I wrote anything but the most positive of reviews. And should I write an exceptionally glowing review it could come of as me attempting to be polite or worse in this day and age when even our personal lives are mired in politics. With the position I’m in itnjust wouldn’t be prudent for me to do more indepth looks in to specific beers or breweries. I certainly have plenty to say on the subject, andni like to think I have a fairly informed perspective on it, but for now I will save those conversations with a good friend over a beer somewhere. Don’t worry, I’ll still share when I find something truly outstanding out there, or all sorts of talk about homebrewing, but indepth commentary and reviews of the microbeer world just isn’t something you’ll find here. Fortunately there are plenty of good sites where you can get you beer reviewing fix.

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Big Ithaca win at 2008 TAP NY

I’ve had to write this in a hundred different places for work, but I really felt it was worth mentioning here as well.  Over the weekend the 2008 TAP-NY took place.  It’s a festival that celebrates New York State craft beers.  In 2006 we took home the Silver medal for DoubleIPA, and last year we came home empty handed.  This year however we won big.

• The F.X. Matt Memorial Cup for New York State’s best Craft Brewery
• The Gold Medal for ‘TEN’, our tenth anniversary ale, a crazy strong super hopped up Red Ale that makes the Cascazilla nothing more than a whimper in comparison.  It’s part of our Excelsior! series (the 750ml bottles)
• The SIlver Medal for ‘Flower Power’, our signature IPA.  This has always been a rock solid beer for us, and its been an especially good year for this beer.  Reaching the final four in the National IPA challenge, and now this!

Right now I’m exceedingly proud to be working at the Ithaca Beer Company.  Everyone there has been working their asses off to make the beers the best they can be and it’s always good when you get a little recognition for that.

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Happy 75th Anniversary!

Today marks 75 years since beer was once again made legal in this country.  After a few dark years of underground boozing and the rise to power of the mafia, the government wised up, at least momentarally, to repeal Prohibition and once again allow booze to flow freely!

So lift up a pint and celebrate 75 years of legalized beer!  Here’s to you beer, and 75 more years of deliciousness!

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Ithaca Beer After Dark

Awhile ago the brewery attempted to get a license so that we could sell beer by the pint.  The theory was that we would have a couple nights a week where we would do a happy hour.  The town dropped the hammer on that idea though.  Still, they ended up purchasing a couple of pub tables and some pub chairs.  All of them finally arrived the other day and I put them all together, so in the retail front they sit.  They look good there – they make the room look a lot less empty, but still, part of me thinks they seem silly for being there.  Though it occurred to me that while they might not be overly useful in terms of the customer, they would make a great Ithaca Beer after hours.

Hey, it’s the random things that I think when it gets slow.

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The Best of Intentions.

I always have the best of intentions to update this site with far more regularity, especially after all the issues (technical and political) with LiveJournal these days. Of course I haven’t exactly updated that with any regularity either other than to remind people of various Ithaca Beer going ons. I’m sure not really many people read this, which is entirely understandable with how infrequently it has been updated. Though with a good RSS aggregator it saves you from always checking a site for new posts(I love NewsFire, one of the numerous pieces of shareware I’ve registered these days).

Of course on the theme of updating people about events I’ll take this moment to plug our event at Felicia’s Atomic Lounge tonight. Tonight at 7pm Ithaca Beer Co. is having our release party for Kaffinator – a Double Espresso Bock. It’s a beer we collaborated with Gimme! coffee to make. It’s damn good, especially for anyone who loves coffee. There’s closing in on a shot of espresso per bottle. I have the feeling this will be the best release party we’ve thrown in Ithaca yet!

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